routed 318. The Emperor David's Letter to Emanuel King of Portugal 50. His Titles 50 51. His Letter to King John the Third of Portugal 58. His Letter to the Roman Pontiff 64. His second Letter to the Roman Pontiff 71. He brings a terrible Storm upon himself by seeking to enter into an Alliance with the Portuguese 118. He sends one John Bermudes a Portuguese after having given him a Title to succeed the Abuna when he died to Rome and Lisbon to solicit and hasten some Succors 120. Dembea Lake its Description 4. its Islands ib. Eight Dominicans arrive at Ethiopia and are kindly received by Prester John 467. E. EManuel King of Portugal sends a splendid Embassy to the Emperor of Habassia 47. He sends Almeida with a great Fleet to take Ormus and some other Seaports in the Indies 42. The design of the Habassin Embassy 110. The Emperor being acquainted with the arrival of the Portugueses writes to Gama to come and join him 128. The Emperor being restored to the quiet possession of his Kingdom quarrels with the Portuguese 145. The chief cause of his quarrel was the Abuna urging him to turn Roman Catholick presently 145. He is resolved never to turn Roman Catholick 146. He thereupon writes to the Patriarch of Alexandria to send an Abuna into Ethiopia as formerly 147. He enrages the Portuguese thereby ibid. He receives the Abuna whose Name was Joseph at Deberea 148. He rids himself of the Popish Patriarch Bermudes ibid. His defence of himself and his Faith 167. His Confession of Faith 185. He offers to lay the Debates about Religion before his Council 189. He answers the Coadjutor's Book and writes one in defence of his own Faith 196. He invites Father Peter to Court 239. He greatly admires Father Peter's Sermon and therefore sent him his Dinner from his own Table 248. He discovers his Intention to Father Peter to turn Roman Catholick 250. His Letter to the Pope 251. His Letter to the King of Spain 253. He marcheth against the Rebels 257. He is killed fighting 259. The New Emperor sends to Father Peter to come to him 273. He offers to write to the King of Portugal and the Pope and is encouraged by Father Peter to do it 275. His Letter to the Pope 276. His Letter to the King of Spain 278. These Letters were probably forged by some Missionary 280. A mock Emperor set up and massacred 284. The Emperor and his Brother Raz Cella Christos convinced of Christ's having two Natures 285. He publisheth an Edict prohibiting any to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ 301. He publisheth a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to turn Roman Catholicks 303. He is addressed to not to trouble his Subjects about their Religion 304. He is deaf to all such Addresses 305. An Attempt made upon his Life 308. Upon his Victory prohibits his Subjects to observe Saturday 312. A severe Libel comes out against him 312. By a second Proclamation he commands all Subjects to work upon Saturdays 203. A Rebellion breaks out upon it 313. His Speech thereupon 315. He sends an Army against the Rebels and routs them 317. He reconciles himself to the Church of Rome 319. He grows jealous of his Brother Raz Cella 331. He sends him against Gabriel who was at the head of a Croisade 332. His Letter to the Patriarch 333. He is obliged to employ his Brother against them 357. Dom Apolinar d'Almeyda brings Letters and a Jubilee to the Emperor and to the Prince 364. The Emperor's Zeal revived by this Letter and a Jubilee 368. He is defeated by the Peasants of Lasta 372. He is passionately addressed for a Toleration ibid. He speaks to the Patriarch about it and will nor be denied 373. The Toleration proclaimed The Patriarch's Protestation against it 374. The Emperor's Answer to the Patriarch's Protestation 377. He declares his Resolution to continue a Roman Catholick 379. The Patriarch baffled in a great point of his Jurisdiction 380. The Country People in good humour by a Toleration yet not satisfied without re-establishment of their old Religion and banished the Patriarch and Fathers of Ethiopia Raz Cella going against the Peasants with an Army is routed 381. The Romanists have all their Churches and Lands taken from them The Emperor dieth and is succeeded by his Son Basilides 395. The Emperor marcheth against them and obtaineth a Victory 382. He is moved by the passionate Remonstrances of the Grandees and others to restore the Alexandrian Religion 383. The Patriarch and Fathers endeavour to divert him 385. He continues immoveable in his Resolution 388. The Patriarch's Manifesto 392. A Proclamation for restoring the Alexandrian Religion Festivities thereupon 394. The Emperor hearing thereof commands the Patriarch and Fathers to leave Ethiopia 422. He writes to the Bashaw of Suaqhem 454. The Bashaw murthers them all three and sends their heads to the Emperor 454. The Emperor's Library founded by Queen Saba 471. His Treasury 472. The Empress arrives at the Camp 127. The Eucharist is administred to Children when they are baptized 95. Eugenius the Fourth translates the Council from Florence to Rome upon a sham Pretence that the Emperor of Ethiopia was sending an Ambassador with a submission of himself and his Church to him 23. Esimetheus made King of the Homerites deposed by the Habassin Army which put Abraham in his place 17. Ethiopia the Climate 1. The true Title of the Emperor ibid. The Provinces 2. It s several great Rivers beside the Nile 6. It s great mixture of People 7. The Court Language is Amchara ibid. The Emperor names his Successor ib. The Royal Arms ib. The Queen of Sheba reported to have been its Empress Her Son by Solomon said to have introduced Judaism into it 8. The Eunuch that was baptized by Philip is said to have been of this Country and to have introduced Christianity into it 9. Frumentius Bishop of Axum its Apostle 10. Constantius's Letter to the Princes of Axum 11. Nine Monks come into it 14. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia 15. The business of the Embassy 16. The Ethiopians send an Ambassador to the Patriarch of Alexandria 17. James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen and restored by the King afterwards 18. The seventh place in a general Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Council of Nice 20. The first Discovery of the Church of Ethiopia by the Portugueses 29. The account of the Succession of their grand Abbots 29. F. TWO Fathers are sent from Fremona to congratulate Suseneus who took the Name of Seltem Saged 272. Seven of the Fathers purchase leave to go to Dio but the Patriarch is detained 433. Four Fathers condemned as Traytors and executed by the Mob 446. Father Fermandes sollicits for Troops 208. The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox 13. G. GAma enters into Ethiopia with his Troops and the Roman Patriarch 125. He sends
Affection the Patriarch having paid his Devoirs to the Emperor went up to the Altar where having spent some time in Devotion he seated himself in his Pontifical Chair and begun a Sermon taking for his Text those words of the Psalmist Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to live together in unity His Discourse is said to have been the more applauded for its having been the first Sermon that was ever preached in Ethiopia by an Abuna Upon which as if all Popes and Roman Archbishops were constant and laborious Preachers and mortal haters of Money the Jesuits triumphed and made this reflection That by this if there had been nothing else the Habassins might have seen the difference there was betwixt their Church and that of Rome their former Abunas having come amongst them for no other end but to get money out of them the Patriarch having given the blessing was told the Emperor staid for him in the great Hall of the Palace who when the Patriarch came near ris up and made him sit down by him in a Chair that differed nothing from that he himself sate on the Emperor after they were both seated enquired very kindly about the Patriarch's health The day is fixt for the Emperor's submitting himself and his Empire to the Pope and the length and fatigues of his Voyage and some Complements and Ejaculations having passed on both sides they fixed the day whereon the Emperor and all his Converts were publickly to swear obedience to the Pope in the hands of the Patriarch The Eleventh of December which was the day appointed for the Solemnity being come the Emperor and all the Court-Converts repaired to the great Hall of the Palace in which there were two Chairs of State placed near the Throne one on the right side for the Emperor and another on the left for the Patriarch who being seated with his Tiara on his head and in a Cope of Asperges he begun a Sermon taking for his Text Thou art Peter c. I shall not trouble the Reader with the Sermon there being nothing in it but the common Roman Mumpsimus upon these words The Patriarch preacheth before the Emperor and the gross fallacy of confounding the Supremacy the Church of Rome now pretends to with that primacy of order that was anciently given to it purely in consideration of Rome 's being the first City in the Empire to which purpose the Patriarch quoted a Canon of the Council of Nice which he told the Habassins they would find in their own Books which run as follows There are four principal Chairs in the World which are as the four Rivers that flow out of Paradise or as the four universal Winds or as the four Elements but above all the Chair of St. Peter has the Dignity and Primacy and in the second place that of St. Mark of Alexandria in the third place that of St. John in the fourth that of Antioch which was also St. Peter 's from which four all the other Bishops are derived Now this Canon besides that it is not a Canon of the Council of Nice which in its Constitution relating to the Hierarchy contradicts it in making Antioch and not Ephesus the third Chair and Jerusalem the fourth it overthrows that very Supremacy to which the Habassins were about to swear obedience in giving no other Primacy to the Roman over the other three Patriarchs than it do's to the Alexandrian over the other two which was undoubtedly a Primacy only of Order and not of Jurisdiction for had the Primacy that is here given to these Chairs been given out of respect to the Apostles who were their first Bishops then Antioch must have been the second if not the first and Alexandria the last but notwithstanding it is not easy to imagine that the patriarch should be ignorant of these two great flaws in his Canon he concluded it with this flourish See now to whom you ought to give most Credit to a gross Falsary or Cheat or to a Decree of Three hundred and eighteen Catholick Fathers There was another thing he much insisted upon which was That there had been Heretical Bishops in all the other Chairs whereas no Bishop that had sate in the Chair of Rome had ever been so much as suspected of any Heresy which to say no worse of it was a bold word considering That Liberius stands accused by all his Contemporaries of Arianism and Honorius Bishop of the same See was condemned by Name in Two General Councils as a Heretick But the Habassins having little or no Knowledge in Church-History encouraged the Patriarch to make so bold with them When the Patriarch had ended his Sermon the Emperor Commanded the Viceroy of Cemen who was Lord High Chamberlain to speak in his Name There is but one thing remarkable in the Chamberlain's Speech that is his saying The High Chamberlain's Speech That the People of Ethiopia did compel the Emperor much against his will to take the Crown upon him and that if they would have let him alone he would have been much better contented to have lived and died in the Monastery they found him in than to have been made an Emperor Now this is very different from the History we have of him which makes him during Jacob and Za Danguil's Reign to have scoured about with a Body of Raperees and to have fought his way to the Throne When the Chamberlain had done speaking the Emperor turned about to the Patriarch and told him Your Lordship is not to think that what I am about to do now is a new thing I having some years ago yeilded Obedience to the Pope in the hands of the Father Superior who is here present nevertheless being willing to do it again with more Solemnity he took the Book of the Gospels in his hand and Kneeling down before the Patriarch made his Submission in the form following WE Seltem Saged The Emperor's Submission Emperor of Ethiopia Do Believe and Confess That St. Peter was Constituted Prince of the Apostles by our Lord Jesus Christ as also Head of the whole Christian Church Christ having given him a Principality and Dominion over the whole World when he said unto him Thou art Peter and when at another time he Commanded him to feed his Sheep We do also Believe and Confess That the Pope of Rome being lawfully Elected is the true Successor of the Apostle St. Peter in that Government having the same Power Dignity and Primacy over the whole Christian Church And to the Holy Father Urban the VIIIth who is by the Grace of God Pope at this time and our Lord and to his Successors in the Government of the Church We do Promise Offer and Swear true Obedience and Subjection with all humility at his Feet for our own Person and Empire So help us God and this Holy Gospel Upon this Submission the Emperor was represented here in Europe by the Missionaries as one of the
privilege and primacy to his Successors in the Chair of Rome where it has continued and will continue to the end of the world so that it shall neither be in the power of Moors nor Turks nor of any other Creature to destroy it those words of our Lord Jesus the Gates of all shall not pervail against it being its sure defence So when a Controversy arose in the Church the first Council of Nice which consisted of Three hundred and eighteen Bishops threw Arius out of the Church for affirming the Son of God to be a Creature as the second Council consisting of One hundred and fifteen Patriarchs and Bishops assembled in the City of Constantinople did Macedonius for asserting the Holy Ghost to be a Creature and the third Council consisting of Three hundred Bishops did Nestorius for dividing Christ into Two Persons the Divine and Human and the fourth consisting of Six hundred and thirty Patriarchs and Bishops assembled in the City of Calcedon Excommunicated the Rebellious Dioscorus for joyning in Infidelity with Eutyches in mixing the Humanity with the Divinity so as to make One only Nature whereas it is most certain That there are Two Natures in Christ the Divine and Human on the account of which Divine Nature it was that the said Three hundred and eigheeen Fathers did put the following words into the Creed We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of the Father and who was with him before the World was Created as on the account of his Human Nature the following words were added And was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Mary with the Consent of the Father and the Son and of the said Holy Ghost Three Persons and One only God the Father and the Son not being named on that occasion being no argument of those Father 's not believing they did not Co-operate therein with the Holy Spirit but it was done on purpose to teach us That in the Most Blessed Trinity besides the operations ad Intra there are operations ad Extra according to the holy Fathers of those ad Extra the Works of Power are attributed to the Father those of Wisdom to the Son and those of Love to the Holy Ghost Wherefore since the Incarnation of the Son of God was for the sake of the Sons of Men and for that reason was a Work of Love The Three hundred and eighteen Fathers did attribute it to the Holy Spirit Though in Virtue and Power and the Creation of things the Father Son and Holy Ghost are One only True God The Virgin Mary was mentioned by them upon account of the Human Nature which in an instant united it self to the Eternal Person of the Son who is equal in Divinity to the Father and that in our Lord Jesus Christ being only One Person there are Two Natures is written in divers Books of the Holy Spirit St. Matthew in the beginning of it calleth his Gospel The book of the Generation of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham which was said on the account of his Human Nature as it was on the account of his Divine Nature that St. John saith In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word the Divine Nature having neither Beginning nor End whereas the Human Nature had a Beginning All which Writings notwithstanding Eutyches the Master of Mischief did affirm That there was only One Nature in Christ and so mixed the Humanity with the Divinity now this Rebel was followed by Dioscorus who assisted him both in word and deed and having procured the Murther of Flavianius Patriarch of Constantinople for having Excommunicated Eutyches and some other obstinate Hereticks that were before him namely Arius Macedonius Nestorius and Sabellius all which matters having been submitted to the Holy Roman Church the Head of all other Churches on the account of the Empire and Primacy that it hath by inheriting the Power of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles It is certain the Patriarchs who succeeded Dioscorus in the See of Alexandria have not Preached the true Faith in having taught that there is only One Nature in Christ and so being destitute of the true Faith they have wandered out of the paths of Patriarchs Bishops and Priests in having had Wives and Children and Grand-Children and have been intangled in divers things not fit to be named they have also taken Money for Holy Orders and having Consecrated Salt Stones for Altar Stones have afterwards sold them having likewise tyrannized cruelly over those they Ordained obliging several of them to serve them a Year or Six Months at least in sawing Wood or Stone for their Palaces before they would Ordain them for which Practice they were Excommunicated by the Apostle who said He that buyeth or selleth Orders is excommunicated and has his portion with Simon Magus and Judas The Abuna Mark was Convicted by the Emperor Malec Saged of several carnal Crimes which are not fit to be heard or Uttered they being of that kind for which God rained down fire from Heaven and being Deposed for having been guilty of them he was Banished into the Island of Dek where he dyed a strange death his Belly swelling as hard as a Drum The Abuna Christos Dula kept several Concubines contrary to the custom of Patriarchs as was well known by all his Contemporaries and by some that are still alive His Successor Peter kept a Malaquis Wife and having been convicted of Adultery he did Penance for it as may be testified by several living Witnesses namely one Joseph and one Marino who are both Strangers and not Habassins and who adding sin to sin did Excommunicate the Emperor Jacob after he had Reigned Seven Years as he did all the People of Ethiopia likewise in case they did not Depose him and Banish him to the Kingdom of Narea and having placed Za Danguil in the Throne he afterwards excited his Subjects to Murther him by Excommunicating them if they did not do it and as if all this had not been enough he took the Field with the Emperor Jacob against us and was killed with him in the Fight The Abuna Simon was guilty likewise of divers enormous Grimes who besides his having taken one Mali an Egyptian 's Wife from him and dishonoured several Virgins he kept divers Concubines and happening to have a Child by one who was not able to maintain it to conceal his shame he ordered it to be thrown to the Wolves by whom it was devoured this every body knows to be true namely the Azages and who when Julius Rebelled instead of labouring according to the custom of Patriarchs and Monks to make Peace joyned with him in his Rebellion and having called his Soldiers together told them on the day before the Battel That he forgave them all Young and Old their Sins notwithstanding they had broke all the Commandmendments upon condition they would put all to the Sword
Honour nor Authority of a Patriarch And if it should so happen that a Couneil should be assembled in Greece and this Prelate should be present at it he shall have the seventh Place therein next after the Bishop of Seleucia and in case he should have at any time power given him to ordain Archbishops in his Province it shall not be lawful for him to advance any of the Natives to that Dignity whosoever does not yield obedience to this is excommunicated by the Synod If there were nothing else to prove these Arabick Canons to be spurious this Canon alone would do it abundantly it being plain from Ecclesiastical History that the Title of Patriarch was not known in the Church for some time after the Celebration of the First Nicene Council neither was there any Bishop or Christian in Ethiopia at that time Frumentius who was the Apostle or first Bishop thereof having been consecrated a Bishop by Athanasius when he was Primate of Alexandria which he was not till after the Nicene Council In the Year 1177. Pope Alexander the IIId Pope Alexander the III d pretends to have received an Ambassador from Prester John while he was at Venice whither the Emperor Frederick had driven him either received or pretended to receive a Message from the Great Christian Emperor Prester John desiring to submit himself to his obedience and to have a College at Rome and an Altar at Jerusalem for the use of his Subjects The Pope having made a noise with this Message pretended to send Philip a Physician who was said to have brought it back again with a Letter to Prester John I shall not trouble the Reader with that Letter for besides that it contains little else than Hyperbolies of St. Peter and the Pope's Supremacy it is probable that that whole Affair was a mere Fiction invented on purpose to make the Roman Emperor ashamed of persecuting the Pope at the same time when so remote a Christian Emperor was ready to throw himself at his feet For had this Message of Philip's whom some call Peter been a real thing it would certainly have taught the Court of Rome in what part of the World Prester John's Empire lay whether in Asia near Tartary or in Africk beyond Egypt Whereas long after this that Empire though called Ethiopia was still supposed to lie somewhere in the North of Asia for which reason it was still joined in the same Missions with the Tartars and Ruthens and committed to the Charge of the Dominican Provincial of Poland as being its next Neigbour In the Year 1308. Pope Clement pretended to have received an Embassy from the same Prince Prester John was brought upon the stage again Pope Clement the Vth being said to have received a most splendid Embassy from him consisting of 30 Ambassadors by whom he was assured that their Master had no less than 74 Kings under him and who excepting five of the smallest that were Mahometans were all Christians and that he had likewise within his Dominions an 127 Archbishops every one of which had 20 Bishops under his Jurisdiction Which pious Fraud was spread about at that time on purpose to encourage the Latins to undertake a new Expedition to the Holy Land being assured of the Assistance of this mighty Christian Emperor whose Dominions were still reported to lie convenient enough for the carrying on of a Holy War in Syria It is probable that there was never any such Emperor insomuch that I am apt to think that the whole Story of this Enchanted Asiatick Christian Empire was invented and kept up by the Trumpeters of the Holy War for that very purpose no such Empire having ever to this day been discovered in Asia what is reported by the Portuguese Missionaries of the Kingdom of Thybot amounting to no more at most than that those People were formerly Christians but without the least Evidence of any Prester John or Great Christian Empire having ever been in those Parts But how they come to call a Countrey which they supposed to lie towards Scythia Ethiopia is one of the unaccountable Blunders of those Ignorant though Fraudulent Ages unless we will say That they having heard something of a Christian Empire in Ethiopia did either for the foresaid Ends industriously transiate it into Asia or were so ignorant in Geography as not to know what part of the World Ethiopia lay in In the Council of Florence for so low we must come before we meet with any thing more of the Ethiopick Church Eugenius the IVth after he had dismissed the Greeks Eugenius the IVth translates the Council from Florence to Rome upon a sham Pretence that the Emperor of Ethiopia was sending an Ambassador with a submission of himself and his Church to him finding it necessary for his Affairs to have the name of a Council still sitting so long as that of Basil which had deposed him and chosen the Duke of Savoy Pope was on foot against him but being withal desirous to have it at Rome for want of a better gave this for the reason of his translating it from Florence thither That it was convenient that the splendid Embassy from Zerah Jacob the High and Mighty Emperor of Ethiopia which was on its way to that Council with the submission of that Church and Empire to the Pope should not find the Council sitting in such a paultry Town as Florence but in the Metropolis of Christendom which would add something of Authority to it and accordingly it was translated But as it is certain that no such splendid Ethiopick Embassy ever came to Rome so it is as certain that it was never so much as thought of in Habassia on the contrary Zera Jacob when he was solicited by some Jerusalem Monks on this Occasion did absolutely refuse to submit his Church to that of Rome for which denial the Jesuits above 200 years after his death made Sultan Saged his Great Grandson Sultan Saged curseth his Grandfather's Soul for not having submitted himself to the Romish Church and their Convert to curse his Soul to the Pit of Hell saying A curse on King Zera Jacob who was the cause of our not being at this time in the Portuguese or Roman Faith for which he is now tormented in Hell Now though this Convert had been never so certain of Zera Jacob's being in Hell for having deny'd to submit himself to the Pope yet considering he was his Great Granfather he might very well have spared his Curses such impious Expressions of Zeal for I can call them no other being much fitter for the Mouths of Profligate Algerine Renegadoes with whom they are said to be common than for a Prince who turns from one Sect of Christianity to another Besides Zera Jacob abating him that one thing of his having refused to submit the Ethiopick Church to the Roman was no such Miscreant as to deserve to be thus cursed by his Posterity as appears by a Letter written by him
to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem to whom he sent the Collection of Canons which is now at Rome giving them likewise several Lands for uses which the Church of Rome allows to be pious this Monastery of Habassins stands on Mount Gabor Zera Jacob 's Letter to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem In the name of the Father and Son The Emperor Zera Jacob's Letter to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem and Holy Ghost one God whom I adore with all my heart and on whom I rely with all my strength and with all my mind to whom I am bound with the tye of sacred Worship which is not to be broken THIS Letter is written in this Book of Canons by us Zera Jacob whose Name since we took the Government upon us is Constantine in the 8th year after the God of Israel in the multitude of his mercies was pleased to place us on the Throne of the Kingdom of Ethiopia being in Seava which is called Teglet Let this come to the hands of my beloved the College of Saints who reside at Jerusalem the Holy City In the peace of the Lord. Amen I do proclaim you very happy for having in the first place obeyed the word of the Gospel which saith He that forsaketh not his father and mother wife and children c. for which reason you have left the world and have taken upon you the Yoke of Monkery the word of the Prophet hath likewise bound you which saith I will not go into the tabernacle of mine house nor climb up to my bed neither will I give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eyelids until I find the house of the Lord the habitatian of the God of Jacob. Whereupon you determined to repair to Jerusalem the City of the Great King not being discouraged from going thither either by the Incommodities of the Journey or the heat by day or the cold by night nor by the dangers of Robbers where when you arrived what was said by the Prophet was fulfilled in you Let us therefore go into his house and worship in the place where the face of our Lord stood for to you it is given to kiss the place which his Presence hath hallowed from his Nativity to his Ascension For which cause I do very much rely on your Prayers and on the Afflictions you have suffered for God's sake I do salute you from the bottom of my heart saying Health to you the Sons of Ethiopia whom the Earthly Jerusalem hath tyed to her self that she may convey you to the Heavenly Health be to your Faith which is perfect in the Trinity and to your course of life which is like to that of Angels Health be to your Feet which walk to your Hands which touch to your Lips which kiss to your Eyes which do freely behold Galilee where God was Incarnate and Bethlehem where he was born taking our Nature upon him and the Cave where he lay and Nazareth where he was educated and Jordan where he was baptized that he might cleanse us and Corontum where he fasted for our sake and Calvary where he was crucified for our Redemption and Golgotha where he was buried and rose again that he might quicken us and the Mount of Olives where he ascended to his Father and our God that he might introduce us into the Inner Vail of the highest Heavens into which he himself entred and introduced the Apostles who were before us and the Oratory of Sion where the Comforter descended on our Fathers the Apostles Health be likewise to your Eyes which behold the Light that cometh out of the Sepulchre of our Lord on the Old Sabbath to wit on the Eve of our Passover May your Peace and Love and Prayers and Benedictions be with me for ever Amen Behold I have sent you this Book of Synods that you may receive Consolation from it on the Old Sabbath and on the Lord's Day and that they may be a Memorial of me through all Ages Amen I Zera Jacob whose Name since God was pleased to place me on the Throne of the Empire is Constantine in the Eighth Year of my Reign do Bequeath unto you the Land of Zebla and Half of all the Tributes arising from it for Two Years which amounts to an Hundred Ounces of Gold toward your Food and Rayment and do give it to the Monastery of Jerusalem that it may be a Memorial of my self and of our Lady Mary and for the Celebration of Her Feasts to wit That of her Nativity on the 1st of May that of her Death on the 22d of January and that of her Translation on the 15th of August as also of the Feasts of her Son our Lord Jesus on the 29th of December when he was Born to be celebrated by you at Bethlehem together with the Festivities of his Passion and lively Resurrection from Death You shall likewise celebrate all the Festivities of our Lady Mary which in the Book of her Miracles are Thirty two in number And shall furthermore keep a Lamp burning for me in the Sepulchre of our Lord and another in the Entry thereof and on the right side one and on the left another as also at the place of his Burial three three at the Monument of our Lady Mary in Gethsemane and at the place where Mary Magdalen saw him one and in our Chappel three one also at Bethlehem where our Lord was born and another at the place in the Mount of Olives where our Lord ascended Let them he all maintained at my Charge and take care not to suffer them to go out at any time nor to give way to any Person contributing towards them And since I do rely on the Bond of your Love let your Prayers and Benedictions be with me thorough all Ages Amen My Beloved Don't you offer to say Light descendeth only upon us that your glorying in your selves be not in vain since you know that evil attends glorying and blessing humility Peace be with you the Peace of our Lord be with you Amen The Jesuit Guerrira speaking of the forementioned Ethiopick Embassy saith That the whole Story of it was either a mere Fiction not knowing its like of its having been made use of for so great a purpose by a Pope or that it had no manner of effect But it is no matter whether it was a Fiction or a Reality so long as it furnished a good pretence for a present turn and tended to the Disparagement of the Council of Basil which together with the ground it stood upon was blown up purely by Tricks of this nature the Yoke the Council of Constance had laid on the Neck of the Papacy being broke by Pretences of the Greek and all other Churches and Patriarchs having submitted themselves to it This is all that I have been able to meet with in Greek or Latin History concerning the Church of Ethiopia before the Year 1490 when it was first discovered by the Portugueses And as for Histories of
Spirit and with Himself without any defect or division the Son of the Father the Son of the very Father without any beginning and at first the Son of the Father without a Mother the Secret and Mystery of whose Nativity is known to none but the Father Son and Holy Spirit This Son in the beginning was the Word and the Word was the Word with God and God was the Word The Spirit of the Father the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Son the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit it s own Spirit without any diminution or augmentation That Holy Spirit is the Comforter of the living God who proceedeth from the Father and the Son and who spake by the mouth of the Prophets and descended in a flame of fire on the Apostles in the gate of Sion and who preached the word of the Father which Word the very Son was all over the World wherefore as the Father is not first notwithstanding he is the Father nor the Son last notwithstanding he is the Son so likewise the Holy Spirit is neither first nor last but they are Three Persons in One God who seeth and is seen by no-body and who by his only Council created all things The Son did of his own accord the Father being willing and the Holy Ghost consenting descend from his highest Habitation and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary who was adorned with a double Virginity the one Spiritual the other Carnal he was born without any Corruption his Mother Mary remaining a Virgin after her delivery and by a Miracle and a secret Flame of the Divinity brought forth her Son Jesus without blood and without pain who was perfectly Innocent and without Sin being perfect God and perfect Man and having only one Aspect he grew by degrees as an Infant sucking the Milk of the Virgin Mary his Mother and coming to Thirty Years of Age he was baptiz'd in Jordan and did walk and was weary and did hunger and thirst as other men do all these things he suffered voluntarily and of his own accord and wrought many Miracles restoring by the power of his Divinity sight to the Blind curing the Lame cleansing the Lepers raising the Dead after all which he himself was apprehended and whipt and scourged and crucified He languished and died for our Sins and by his Death overcame Death and the Devil and by his lively Agony dissolved our Sins and bore our Infirmities By the Baptism of his Blood that is his Death he baptized the Patriarchs and Prophets and descended into Hell where the Souls of Adam and his Sons were as also his own Soul which was from Adam which Soul Christ received from the Virgin Mary who by the power and splendor of his Divinity and the strength of his Cross broke the brazen fiery Gates of Hell binding Satan with Iron Chains and rescuing Adam and his Sons All these things Christ did because he was full of the Divinity and the Divinity it self was with his Soul as it was also with his most holy Body which Divinity gave virtue to the Cross and was what he always had and will have for ever in Trinity and Unity in common with the Father Neither did Christ during the time he was in the Flesh ever want the Divinity and Dignity thereof for one moment He was buried and on the third day Jesus Christ himself the Prince of the Resurrection the most sweet Jesus Christ Jesus Christ the Prince of the Priests Jesus Christ the King of Israel did with great power and strength rise and after having finished all things which were foretold by the holy Prophets he ascended with glory into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and will come with glory carrying a Cross before him and in his hand a Sword of Justice to judge the quick and the dead of whose Kingdom there shall be no end I believe one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church I believe one Baptism which is the Remission of Sins and I do hope for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the Age to come Amen I believe the holy Lady Mary to be a Virgin both in Spirit and Flesh and do reverence her as the Mother of God the Charity of all Nations the Holy of Holies and the Virgin of Virgins I believe in the holy Wood of the Cross the Bed of the Agony of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who is our Salvation for thorough him we are saved which notwithstanding it is an offence to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness we do preach believing it to be the power of the Cross of our Lord Christ as our Doctor St. Paul hath commanded I do believe St. Peter to be the Rock of the Law which Law is built upon the holy Prophets and the Foundation and Head of the Catholick and Apostolick Church of the East and West where the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Power of which Church is in St. Peter as is also the Kingdom of Heaven with which he can open and shut bind and loose and who shall sit with the other Apostles his Companions upon Twelve Seats with honour and praise together with our Lord Jesus Christ who upon the Day of Judgment is to pass Sentence upon us which will be a day of joy to the Saints and of sorrow and gnashing of teeth to Sinners when they shall be thrown into the flames of Hell with their Father the Devil I do believe the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors to have been true Imitators of Christ whom together with the most holy Angels of God I do venerate and honour and do in the same manner embrace and reverence all their Followers I believe there ought to be an Oral Confession of all Sins made to a Priest by whose Prayers thorough Our Lord Jesus Christ I do hope to obtain the salvation of my Soul I do furthermore acknowledge the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop and Pastor of all the Sheep of Christ I do likewise observe and obey all Patriarchs Cardinals Archbishops and Bishops of whom he is the Head of the Ministers of Christ This is my Faith and Law and the Faith and Law of the People of Ethiopia who are under the Empire of Precious John which Faith and Love of Christ are so established among us that neither Death nor Fire nor Sword relying on Christ's assistance shall ever be able to oblige me to deny it this being the Faith we are all to carry on the Day of Judgment before the Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ I come now to explain the Discipline Doctrine and Law which the Apostles assembled together at Jerusalem did lay down in the holy Books of Synods and Canons called by us Manda Abethlis those Books of the Law of holy Church are Eight in number concerning which having had some discourse with several Learned Men here in Portugal I never met
with the Council of our said Brethren have by our Apostolical Authority promoted you to the Patriarchal Church of Ethiopia and of all the Kingdoms belonging to our beloved Son in Christ Precious John the Illustrious Emperor of the said Ethiopia which is at this time in a manner destitute of the Consolation of a Pastor Making and Constituting you by the said Council and Authority Patriarch and Pastor thereof during your Life or for so long as you shall keep the Charge Government and Administration of all the Affairs Spiritual and Temporal of the said Church as we do also Constitute our Beloved Son Andrew Elect of Hieropolis and Melchior Elect of Nice your Coadjutors with full free and entire faculty power and authority to make treat exercise and procure all things in general and every thing in particular which do of right and custom belong to such Coadjutors from this time forward in all matters of Jurisdiction and after they are consecrated in all matters of Order likewise and in case of accidents we have provided that the said Elects Andrew and Melchior shall after a certain form or manner be successively Pastors and Patriarchs of the said Church and we have sent you by a certain Messenger your Pall which is the Ensign of the perfect power of the Pontifical Office taken from the body of the blessed St. Peter which was desired of us in your behalf with that instance as is fitting and as was signified by you after the manner and form as was therein declared and as is more amply contained in our Letters And we having considered the great distance of the said Church from the Court of Rome and how difficult a thing it is to come from thence hither and how great and dangerous either by Sea or Land the Voyage is and being for that reason desirous so far as we are able with a good Conscience to ease you and your Successors the Patriarchs of Ethiopia and of all the Kingdoms belonging thereunto of such a Journey we do grant to you and the said Elects Andrew and Melchior upon their ceasing to be Coadjutors and to all your other Successors of the said Patriarchal Church of Ethiopia and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging for all times to come the privilege of wearing the foresaid Pall within the Church of Ethiopia and all the Kingdoms thereof upon the Festivities of Easter Whitsuntide and Christmas as also upon those of Circumcision Epiphany and Ascension of our Lord as also upon the Feast of Corpus Christi St. Stephen St. John Palm-Sunday the Thursday and Saturday in the holy Week and of the invention of the Cross and of John the Baptist and on all the days of the Apostles and on the Three Festivities of the Blessed Virgin and on All-Saints-day and on the days of the Consecration of the Chief Churches under their jurisdiction and on the days whereon you ordain Priests or Consecrate Bishops and if it should so happen which God forbid that the said Pall should either be lost by the way or be stolen or should be any other way embezeled you may in that case make and bless such another Pall which you and your Successors by us instituted may use as is above prescribed you shall likewise cause a Cross to be carried before you in all places of your Province When the Archbishops and Bishops of the said Province shall be Elected by our beloved Sons the Chapters of Churches or according to the custom of the place but so that it shall always be in your power to supply all defects if any should happen to be in the Forms of their Elections and be approved of and Confirmed and Instituted by you they shall then be obliged with all possible expedition to intimate their Election Confirmation and Institution to the Apostolical See taking an Oath of due fidelity to it in the form hereafter prescribed and having given the customary obedience shall send the said Oath likewise to the said See And you being assisted by the said Andrew and Melchior Elects if they are present The Pope allows of the Consecration of a Bishop by one Bishop and two Presbyters or otherwise you they not being to be had or they being out of the Office of Coadjutor may being assisted by two lawful Priests ordained according to the custom of the Church of Rome until such time as you can have two Bishops lawfully Consecrated in which case you must be assisted by two Bishops and not by two Presbyters Consecrate the said Archbishops and Bishops so Elected Confirmed and Instituted they having first presented to you or to others their Letters certifying their Election Confirmation and Institution as also the form of the Oath of obedience that they have taken And the Archbbishops thus Consecrated after they have the Pall given them may use all the Insignia of Archbishops as the Bishops so ordained may likewise all those of Bishops and may likewise consecrate the holy Oil and confirm and confer holy Orders and perform all the other Offices appertaining to a Bishop and may likewise respectively exercise the ordinary power and whatsoever is preper and customary for Archbishops and Bishops to exercise you may also give to Archbishops thus Consecrated the Pall which is the sign of Pontifical Perfection which they shall use after the manner above prescribed you may likewise divide and distinguish the Provinces and Dioceses of the said Archbishops and Bishops which have not hitherto been divided and may also grant Licenses to all such as you shall judge fit to Preach and Declare the word of God to the People and if they are Priests to administer all the Sacraments excepting those of Confirmation and holy Orders and to Consecrate Altars with all their Ornaments together with the Sacerdotal Vestments and all other things save Chalices and Patins you may likewise absolve all persons whatsoever within your Province or that are any other way your Subjects by a Diocesan as well as Patriarchal right from all manner of Sins and Excommunications which they may have incurred and from all Suspensions Interdicts and other Censures and Ecclesiastical Penalties how great soever nay tho of that number which are reserved by the Bulla Caena Domini in joining them healthful penances in all such cases in proportion to the nature of their faults you may likewise Communicate faculties to Bishops to absolve in all such cases as you or the Patriarchs of Ethiopia for the time being shall judge convenient and if it shall be thought fit you may by your self or others dispense with all persons as to any irregularities they have contracted by Bigamy provided it was not true or Homicide so it was not voluntary which when they are so must never be dispenced withal but on great occasions and for the publick good and for want of Age also and with any of the other impediments to holy Orders or the exercise thereof as also as to the Sacrament of Matrimony in whatsoever degree
of Affinity or Consanguinity Spiritual or Carnal those only excepted which are prohibited by the Divine Law and Spiritual Affinity in Matrimony shall never be contracted betwixt the Godfather and Godmother and their Godchildren you may also commute Vows into any pious work provided they be not the solemn Vows of Religion and Chastity At three times in the Year to wit Christmas Easter and Whitsuntide you may grant plenary Indulgences to all People of the said Province who being contrite have voluntarily confessed their Sins obliging them before you grant them to Fast and devoutly to beseech God in behalf of all the faithful of the Roman Church and on any other days you may grant Temporary Indulgences and Remission of Sins which must never exceed the term of Ten years you may likewise give license to your Friars to read Heretical Books and may at your pleasure unite annex and incorporate Ecclesiastical Benefices into Churches or other Pious and Religious places for the Spiritual or Temporal advantage of the Neighbours and may erect and found general Universities and Colleges wherein People may take all Degrees of Master and Doctor and likewise Hospitals for the Poor the Sick and Strangers Male and Female as also Monasteries and Colleges for Boys and Girls and Orphans in all which works of Piety and Charity may be exercised You may either in your Person or by your Deputies visit with a Plenary Jurisdiction all the said Universities Colleges Hospitals Monasteries and all other Religious Houses of what Order or Sex soever and reform them as well in the Head as in the Members and Chastise Correct and Punish all that shall be found faulty and may remove them from one place to another You may also if you find it necessary found Religious Houses of both Sexes and approve disprove or extinguish such as are already founded or may reduce divers Religions to one and reform their Constitutions by either adding to them or taking from them as you shall think fit in the Lord. You may give License to the poor Religious or not Religious to beg and desire Alms in the name of any Saint You shall furthermore in our Name and in that of the Holy See declare to the people of your Province the Faith of the Roman Church and which are the Canonical Scriptures that they ought to hold and follow in every thing You must likewise condemn the writings which the Roman Church rejects and condemns and must determine and declare to them which Ecclesiastical precepts do oblige them under the penalty of a mortal sin and which do not You may further by your Authority so that nothing be changed that is decreed by the Divine and Natural Law make Orders concerning all matters which are of positive right even so far as Excommunications Suspensions Interdicts and other Ecclesiastical Sentences Censures Penalties and Irregularities which any may have incurred upon the account of such matters declaring which are Obligatory and which are not until such time as the Apostolical See shall otherwise order You may also grant Dispensations concerning all such matters and may Legitimate Bastards and others that have any defect in their Birth You must create a Notary who by the Apostolical Authority may see all the matters executed which can be done by any Legate de Laterre or Nuncio of the said See You may also make Compositions with any People for Ecclesiastical Fruits or Revenues that have been unjustly received and employ the Money to some Pious use Finally you may lawfully and freely do and execute all things in general and every thing in particular that appertains to the Edification and Salvation of Souls or that are seasonable until such time as you shall receive an answer concerning them from the said See and to you our Son John Elect in case the said Andrew and Melchior or either of them should happen to die before you we do by these Presents and the said Apostolical Authority grant a Faculty and a Plenary and Free Power freely and lawfully to Name and Elect one or more Coadjutors who shall succeed one another in the said Church of Ethiopia and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging and to Institute and Consecrate them Bishops and Successors obliging them to intimate their Election Institution and Consecration to the said See in the manner aforesaid and to take an Oath of Fidelity and Obedience thereunto as is above prescribed and by Letters to acquaint the said See therewith All which must be done with the Approbation of the Council that is to be erected for the handling of all weighty Affairs and which you shall hereafter Constitute All Constitutions and Apostolical Ordinances and Reservatories though of Cathedral Churches or of this Patriarchal Church tho confirmed by Oath or Apostolical Confirmation or by any Confirmation Statutes Customs or any other way to the contrary notwithstanding Given at St. Peters in Rome on the 17th day of February in the year of our Lord 1554 in the 5th year of our Pontificate The Bulls of the three Elects being come to Lisbon the King looking upon it as the greatest honour that had ever been done to Portugal to have a Patriarch consecrated in it The Patriarch and one of his Coadjutors are Consecrated at Lisbon made great Preparations for that Ceremony the Patriarch and the Bishop of Hieropolis were both consecrated in the Church of the Trinity Friars by Don Julian d'Abreu Bishop of Portalegree and Dom Gasper Bishop of the Island of St. Thomas and Dom Peter Bishop of Hippo Melchior Elect of Nice having Sailed from Lisbon for the Indies four days before the arrival of the Bulls But notwithstanding the King and the whole Court honoured this Consecration with their presence yet I do not find that any of the great Prelates of the Kingdom were present at it which together with it s not having been performed in the See Church but in the Chappel of a Convent and that by two Titulars and the Poorest Bishop in Portugal makes me suspect that the great Prelates were not over-well pleased with this upstart Order leaping so soon into such high Dignities For about the time of this Promotion and which it is like enough might contribute something towards it there was a most terrible storm raised both in Spain and France against the whole Order of the Jesuits Don John Archbishop of Toledo The Jesuits leaping so quickly into such high dignities contrary to their Vows creates them Enemies who continued a mortal Enemy to it till his death driving them out of the University of Completum in the year 1555 and prohibiting all his Priests upon pain of Deprivation to make use of any of their Exercises and prohibiting all others upon pain of Excommunication to confess themselves to any of them The Sorbon likewise declared about the same time That the Society of Jesus was dangerous to the Faith a disturber of the Peace of the Church pernicious to Monastical Religion and in a word
and as Misfortunes do seldom come single his tears were not well dried up for this loss before he received the bad News of Tecur Egzi the Grandee that was to have gone Ambassador to Portugal being killed by the Galls in an inrode they had made into the Kingdom of Damotes Upon the fall of these Two Pillars of the Roman Church the Alexandrians about the Court grew bolder every day and having observed the Emperor to be Melancholy upon such a run of Losses they all waited upon him in a Body one of them in the Name of all the rest asking him Sir We desire to know how long we are to worry one another thus The poor Peasants that are in Arms have no Quarrel with your Highness but only for forcing them to be of the Roman Religion That Religion may perhaps be true but it is what they do not understand neither will they trouble themselves being well satisfied with their Old Religion to study a New one and so being resolved never to be of any other Faith but that of their Forefathers they have set up an Emperor who has promised to defend them in the Profession of it calling us Turks and Moors for having not only embraced a New Religion our selves but for Persecuting of them because they will not do it The Emperor tho he returned them no answer to these passionate Remonstrances encouraged them by his silence and attention to what they said to ply him daily upon that point desiring him at least to leave his Subjects to their liberty of being of which of the Two Religions they liked best But as when things are tumbling The Patriarch hastens the downfall of Popery by two indiscreet acts every small push hastens their fall so there were Two Actions of the Patriarch's which gave Popery a terrible shake in the tottering condition it was in at Court The first was His having commanded the Corps of an Eminent Monk who had been for several years General of the whole Order of Tecla Haymonot to be taken out of the Grave where it lay Buried in a Church and to be thrown into the open Fields for his having declared at his Death That he died in the Alexandrian and not in the Roman Faith It is not to be imagined say the Jesuits how great a storm this act of Discipline put the whole Empire into it being in every Body's mouth That the Romanists were not satisfied with Persecuting People while they were alive who would not turn to their Religion but did Persecute them beyond the Grave which puts a stop to the Rage of all other Nations and Sects of People by Commanding their Bodies contrary to the Laws of Humanity to be taken out of the Earth and thrown for a Prey to Birds and Wild Beasts The second was the Patriarch having committed a Woman to Prison for being a Witch and notwithstanding upon his having been informed that there was a Law in Ethiopia which prohibited People to believe that there is any such thing as Witches the belief whereof they say is founded upon the Error of the Manichees That there are Two Independent Gods a Good one and a Bad one he commanded her presently to be set at Liberty yet that was not sufficient to stop the Clamour or to keep the Alexandrians from accusing the Portugueses of being Manichees and who in defiance to the ancient Laws of the Empire were endeavouring to bring the belief of Two Eternal and Independent Principles in among them There was another thing happened at this time too which though in it self ridiculous made a great noise and did Popery some disservice A Man who appeared to be Distracted running into the great Hall of the Palace cried out He had a Message from Heaven to deliver to the Emperor the Alexandrians who were believed to have made the Farce having persuaded the Emperor to hear what he had to say he told his Highness That it was now Three days since he was Raised from the Dead and having since been carried up to Paradise was sent by God to deliver the following Message to him Hear O Emperor I have bore with you for some Years expecting that you would have Repented of the great Sin you have been guilty of in forsaking the Religion of your Forefathers during all which time the Blessed Virgin has been on her Knees before her Son to Intercede for you but I am now to tell you That in case you do not Repent of that Sin that God will Punish you with a strange Judgment But notwithstanding the Emperor Commanded the Fellow to be soundly Whipp'd for his News the Alexandrians made great use of what he had said it being reported over the whole Empire That an Angel from Heaven had appeared to the Emperor with a Command to him from God to return to his Old Religion But among other things the Emperor is said to have been displeased with himself for having in the first heats of his new Religion settled so much Land on the Patriarch which he would gladly have had a pretence to have resumed again to settle it upon his Younger Sons but whatever were the cause of the Emperor growing every day less fond of Popery the Alexandrians being at him continually for a Toleration he promised to speak to the Patriarch about it and accordingly having sent for him he told him He opposes a Toleration when proposed to him by the Emperor He had done all that was in his power to have introduced the Roman Faith into his Empire but he was now satisfied that it was not to be done by force it being visible that his People hated it more than ever since he Commanded them to embrace it Besides there was an absolute necessity of his granting them a Toleration since if he did not he would quickly have his whole Empire against him his Soldiers that he made use of against the Peasants being in their hearts no less Alexandrians than the Peasants themselves The Patriarch who was extreamly troubled to hear this from the Emperor told him That his Highness was miserably misled by Evil Counsellors who under pretence of a Toleration sought the utter Extirpation of the Roman Faith But the Emperor urging still That something must be done to satisfy the minds of his Subjects the Patriarch was forc'd to promise the Toleration of all such Ancient Habassin Customs as were not contrary to the Faith but upon condition that such a Toleration should not be Proclaimed because if that were done the Habassins he said would Triumph so upon it as to conclude that the Roman Church was about to make Her Exit out of Ethiopia While Popery was in this declining state Dom Apolinar D' Almeyda the new Bishop of Nice arrived in Ethiopia bringing a Jubilee with him and Letters from the Pope to the Emperor and the Prince which Letters though I have great reason to believe they were writ in Ethiopia in order to rekindle the Emperor's Zeal for
confirmed the Truth of the Gospel conquered Tyrants triumphed over Wild Beasts and with your hands full of Palms and your Heads crowned with Laurels are entered into the Palaces of Heaven pardon my Ignorance and pray for us Sacred Virgins shining Religious the Glory of the World the Honour of Heaven the Beauty of Humane Nature and the singular Ornaments of the Order of St. Dominick Pardon all the Defects of this Book in relation to your Praises and pray for us Amen After this studied Prayer which is a sufficient Indication of the Romantick Genius of the Man he imagining I suppose that Protestants notwithstanding all his Apologies and begging of Pardons for having said so little of his Heroes would not be so civil as to believe one half of what he has said of them falls foul upon them and thanks God that he did not write these things to Luther and Calvin or any other excommunicated Hereticks who do ignorantly brutally rashly and blasphemously deny the profitable Intercession of the most glorious Saints with God but to most Catholick Spaniards whose Cridulity having never been tainted with the Heresies of their Neighbours of France and England he hoped would swallow his Book of Prodigies without chewing and especially coming recommended to them by all its Licenses as a Book of wonderful Edification to all pious Souls most of them vouching likewise for the truth of it Its Licensers and Vouchers being no less Men than Don Batasar de Boria Doctor of Law Archdeacon of Xativa Canon of the Church of Valentia and Vicar-General and Official of the Archbishoprick of Valentia Juan Pasqual Rector of the Church of St. Martin and Licenser of the Patriarch of Antioch and Archbishop of Valentia Fryar Raphael Riphez Prior Provincial of the Dominicans in the Kingdom of Arragon Fryar Lupero de Huette and Fryar Jeronymo Mos Licensers of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition who do all in their Licenses give great Commendations both to this History and its Author But this History having been written chiefly to blast the rising-Reputation of the Jesuits and the credit of all their Reports it s having so many and so great Vouchers for its Truth and the Master of the Sacred Palace likewise to whom it is Dedicated for its Patron was not enough to hinder the Jesuits from exposing it so soon as ever it crept out of its cell to the world in its true colours whole Battalions of them falling upon it at once at such an unmerciful rate that as I have been told they made the Dominicans so much ashamed of this Romance which they had endeavoured to have obtruded upon the world for a true History that they have laboured ever since to get all the Copies of it into their hands to destroy them for which reason I shall do all that I can to preserve that which I have by giving it to a Library which next to that of the Emperor of Ethiopia 's is the greatest in the World But this is not the only pious fraud the Dominicans have miscarried in after having promised their Order great honour from them History of the Lisbon Nun called Maria of the Annunciation but above all is that of the Nun at Lisbon the History whereof I shall here set down more at length than I have seen it any where in one Book Maria of the Annunciation was Born at Lisbon and at the age of Thirteen was put into the Dominican Convent of the Annunciation in that City in which so soon as she was of age to do it she professed her self a Nun which she had not done long before she begun to have Miraculous Visions and to be daily visited by Christ in Person whom she still saluted with the Doxology thus Glory be to the Father and to Thee and to the Holy Spirit Whenever she received the Sacrament her Soul was in a Rapture and was honoured with the Vision of the Heavenly Coire of Angels and when she embraced the Crucifix which she still called her Husband it constantly darted out beams of Light much brighter and stronger than those of the Sun One day as she was at her Devotion Christ appeared to her and made her a promise to visit her again upon St. Thomas Aquinas's day and thereon to do her the greatest honour that any Creature was capable of Maria having acquainted Antonio de la Cerda the Provincial of her Order who upon her Name being so high for Miracles was become her Confessor with the Promise had been made her she was directed by him how to prepare her self for the reception of so great a favour whose Directions she punctually observed for never was any creature more submissive to a Confessor Thomas Aquinas's day being come and all the Nuns and Friars being assembled to Mattins while Maria was in a most profound fit of Devotion Christ Crucified appeared to her and in the sight of the whole Congregation printed all the Wounds of his Head Side Hands and Feet upon the same parts of her Body she had Two and thirty Wounds such as Thorns use to make on her Head and in her Side a Gash that resembled a Wound made with a Spear and on her Hands and Feet the Wounds were of a Triangular Figure as if made by a Nail and in order to excite the Devotion of the absent as well as present the Rags she laid to the Wounds on Thursdays had always the Five Wounds of Christ printed on them in the form of a Cross and happy was the Roman Catholick Prince or Princess who could obtain some of those Sacred Rags The Pope he had one and the King of Spain who was strangely devoted to her had another and the Empress had one sent her against she lay in neither was there a Roman Catholick Prince or Princess in Europe but what had obtained one of them by some interest or other Paramus in his History of the Inquisition saith That he being at that time an Inquisitor in Sicily saw one of them which had been sent to the Viceroy Don Henrique de Gusman's Lady who he saith adored it as the most Sacred Relick in the World And Philip the IId. to satisfie the World that he firmly believed all that was reported of the Sanctity and Miracles of the Lisbon Nun had the Royal Standard of the Armada which came against England in the year 1588. Blessed by her The Inquisition whose business it is to enquire severely into the truth of things which are reported to be Miracles having summoned her Confessor and all the rest of the Friars who belonged to the Convent to appear before them was fully satisfied by their Depositions and Oaths as Eye-Witnesses of the Truth of the whole matter as it was reported Whereupon Gregory the XIIIth writ her a very Godly Letter exhorting her to Humility Thankfulness and Perseverance in her Devotions and as there was no Roman Catholick that did in the least doubt of the truth of what